A Rational Zombie

Chapter 105

With so many targets, its impossible to miss. The prey are clumped up, standing in front of the opening in the fence. The trees arent enough to block them from view. My arrows are unimpeded. They cant shoot me. Its harder to shoot up than down. And Im the one shooting down. How convenient. What will the prey do? If they stand by the chokepoint to kill the others, theyll be shot by arrows. If they retreat out of range, the others will pour in. If I were the prey, what would I do? I would run to the buildings, use those as the new chokepoints. Arrows cant go through buildings. If thats what the prey will do, how do I stop them? I cant. If they want to run, theyll run.

As I thought, the prey retreated. The others, they were crossing the trench, slowly, using the plank that the prey set out. Only a few others tried to cross through the trees. Agile Other was probably one of them. The prey did something weird. Half of them ran inside a building. Instead of staying there, they ran back out carrying slabs of wood and slabs of metal. Shields. The prey bunched up, the ones with the shields standing in the front. Behind them, prey held onto spears. They stood in a semicircle. The prey in the front would hold back the others; the prey in the back would stab them through the gaps. Interesting. Ive never seen something like this before. Instead of using the walls of the building as shelter, the prey were using themselves as the wall. Why? Isnt that dumb?

I shot an arrow. But it fell short. The prey retreated too far back. If I come closer, Ill lose my advantage. When were at the same height, the prey can shoot me if I can shoot them. But if I dont go down, the prey will kill all the others. The prey can organize themselves, the others cant. The way the prey are standing, I dont like it. It might not be as effective as hiding inside a building. But like that, they dont have to worry about me setting the building on fire to kill them all at once. Did they know I could do that? Most likely. If I can come up with it, the prey can too.

The prey freely shot their arrows, killing the others before they could even approach the wall of shields. They made it over the trench, not all of them. There were a few others that fell in. And the ones that I tied the motorcycle to were stuck on the plank. Two of them had fallen into the trench. Another two had crossed. But they couldnt move the motorcycle thanks to the two down below. What if I drove the motorcycle into the wall of prey? Can I do that? For now, Ill climb down the hill. Being up here wont help, not when the prey are like that.

Though the others were being shot, they steadily pressed their way towards the prey. The armor I tied to their heads helped. Maybe. If they didnt, that means I wasted a lot of time. Luckily, others werent like prey. Unless their heads were shot, they wouldnt stop moving. By the time I made it to the motorcycle on the plank, the others had reached the prey. It wasnt going well for the others. They couldnt attack the prey, not with the shields in the way. The spikes I tied to their arms didnt do anything. The shields held back their bodies. And once their heads were exposed, a prey in the back would stab with its spear, killing them. Spears were easier to aim than arrows. The armor I tied to the others heads didnt help.

Driving the motorcycle into the prey, I dont think itll work. Theres a few dead others in the way, killed by arrows. Then, theres the live others in the way. I cant circle around either. The others already did that, the prey bunching up, creating a full circle with their shields instead of half of one. Then what do I do? If there were any stray prey wandering around, I could pick them off. But there arent. Maybe, while the prey are distracted, Ill enter their buildings. See if I can find anything useful. But thats similar to giving up. If left alone, all the others will die. Half of them are already dead. Then the prey will find me. I have to kill the prey here while I still have the others helping. The prey arent using arrows anymore. I can approach. But what can I do? Theres no easy way to get past the shields.

Do I retreat? Come back with more others? No. I wont get another chance like this. There arent anymore trees on the hill to cut down. Once the prey repair the fence, I cant come in again. Retreat isnt an option unless I give up on the garrison completely. Maybe finding a gap with the motorcycle is the only way. But driving into the prey, Ill die. Theres so many; theres no way the motorcycle will go all the way through. Ill be stopped, pulled off, killed.

The prey arent weakening either. Aside from the start, when I shot two with my arrows, none of the prey have died. Yet over half of the others are gone. Some were lost to the trench. Some died to the arrows. But its this wall of shields and spears thats killing them. If only the others knew how to use weapons, things would be different. But they dont. Theyre dumb. If I could find a way to break apart the wall of shields, the others might have a chance. But how? Im too weak. Maybe Big Other can do it, pull apart that line of prey. But I dont see Big Other. Maybe it fell into the trench. If it did, theres really no chance. Unless, the prey break apart the wall of shields on their own. This garrison, its their home. If I burn all the buildings down, how will they prey react? Maybe theyll ignore the others, break apart to try and stop me. I hope so.